Day 1: Point Reyes Station to Point Reyes Hostel Start this walkabout at Point Reyes Station, a quiet village with taverns and eateries that will fortify you for the hike. The Holly Tree Inn lies outside town, near the park. It is a good jumping-off spot for this 25-mile journey, with rooms, cabins, and lovely gardens tucked into the woods. If you want to stay off the compound, the Sea Star Cottage, a few miles up Sir Francis Drake Boulevard toward Inverness, is perched over marshland on concrete and wooden piers driven deep into the mud. An undulating field of pickleweed and bulrush stretches 100 feet beyond the cabin to the edge of Tomales Bay. At day''s end, my wife, Heidi, and I soaked contentedly in the cabin''s spa and watched the tide turn. The waters rose until the marsh was gradually submerged, and we were suspended over the bay. Small fishing craft slowly motored by.
On the eastern shore the green, rolling hills of Marin glowed in the rays of the setting sun. Leaving the Holly Tree, you hike 0.3 mile southeast along Bear Valley Road and enter the park. After another mile, you reach Kule Loklo, meaning "Bear Valley," a recreated Coast Miwok village. The lands of the Coast Miwok stretched from the Golden Gate north to Bodega Bay and east to Sonoma, what today is Marin and southern Sonoma counties. Bands of the Olema tribe called Point Reyes home. At the center of Kule Loklo is the roundhouse, a communal and ceremonial structure 55 feet in diameter, built partially into the earth and supported by stout tree limbs. Acorn granaries, a sweat lodge, and conical houses made of redwood bark bring the village to life.
A garden of native plants used by the Miwok for food, medicine, and basketry lies at the edge of the village. The trail passes the park''s visitor center. Stop to learn about the history, geology, and ecology of the park. Then take the Bear Valley Trail for 0.2 mile, turn on the Mt. Wittenberg Trail, and enter an enchanted wilderness. The trail climbs 1,100 feet through forests of Douglas fir, bay, live oaks, ferns, poison oak, and forget-me-nots. When we hiked in early June, grassy fields were still green and decorated with dandelions and blue-eyed grass.
Songbirds serenaded. Two black-tailed does and a fawn crossed the trail 50 feet ahead of us. We all stopped to stare at each other before they delicately stepped into the underbrush and disappeared. After 1.8 miles on Mt. Wittenberg Trail, it reaches the ridge and Z Ranch Trail, the end of the uphill hiking for the day unless you would like to ascend another 0.2 mile to the highest point in the park, the top of Mt. Wittenberg at 1,407 feet.
Our route turns south (left) along the crest on Z Ranch Trail for 0.4 mile and joins Sky Trail for another 0.8 mile. Views of the Pacific open periodically through the dense woods. Take the Woodward Valley Trail and descend 800 feet over the next 2 miles. Now the vast Pacific comes into full view. The great crescent shoreline of Drakes Bay arcs west all the way to Chimney Rock, a monolithic landmark at the tip of Point Reyes. The point was named by Spanish explorer Don Sebastian Vizcaíno on January 6, 1603.
While sailing north from Monterey to explore the uncharted coastline, storms and heavy seas forced him to take shelter in Drakes Bay. Jutting south into the Pacific, the tall bluffs of the peninsula protected his ship from the westerly winds. It was the day of the Feast of the Three Kings, and out of gratitude, Vizcaíno named the point La Punta de Los Tres Reyes . Turn right and follow the Coast Trail as it swings inland along Santa Maria Creek and back to the coastal bluffs above the Pacific. Inland, grassy hills climb sharply and dense forests fill the creek canyons. The trail passes Coast Camp, one of four campgrounds in the park that can be reached on foot or by horse. The campgrounds fill up on summer weekends, but they are available on short notice most other days. Coast Camp lies in a sheltered meadow, protected from the ocean''s winds by grassy dunes.
Only 1.9 miles from the road, it is an easy way for Bay Area residents to get their wilderness camping fix. To make reservations, call 415-663-8054. Just beyond the campground, you reach the sea, 7.4 miles from your starting point. Wide beaches--Santa Maria, Limantour, and Drakes--arc 11 miles west to Chimney Rock, interrupted only by the narrow entrance to Estero de Limantour and Drakes Estero. Santa Maria Beach is a beautiful spot to stop for lunch. Steep, sandy cliffs stretch to the southeast, bordering the broad beach.
Lush gardens of pale blue lupine, lavender asters, bright yellow mustard, and orange paintbrush, nourished by seeps in the vertical walls, descend 100 feet to the beach. From Santa Maria Beach, hike 2.0 miles up Laguna Trail to the Pt. Reyes Hostel. After hiking the mountains and coastline of Pt. Reyes National Seashore for 9.7 miles, you have arrived at a wonderful destination for a day or two of relaxation and exploration. Staying at Point Reyes Hostel Hostelling International provides travelers with inexpensive lodging in amazing settings throughout California and the world.
Tucked in a small valley, 1.5 miles from the coast and surrounded by wooded hills, the Point Reyes Hostel has one private room and 40 bunk beds in men''s and women''s dormitories. The private room is nice for a couple or a family. It often is reserved months in advance, especially for summer weekends, but a dorm bed can usually be booked on fairly short notice. The hostel has a full communal kitchen, living room, library, and outdoor sitting area. Most guests arrive by car, and we had dropped off a cache of food before we started hiking. After cooking dinner, along with a very exuberant troop of Girl Scouts, we sat down with Nancy, the hostel host. She knew about Walkabout California and described herself as "a distance walker.
" She had hiked 500 miles through Northern Spain on El Camino de Santiago, the Way of St. James. For 1,000 years, since medieval times, pilgrims have walked this route, and they continue to hike all or part of this UNESCO World Heritage Site today. We spent a few hours sharing stories about great inn-to-inn hikes in California and about her pilgrimage. "Distance walker." Doesn''t that describe most people throughout history? Horses and carriages became the common mode of transport for the privileged only in recent centuries. Throughout human history, all others who strayed from their home villages were distance walkers. Modern distance walkers include Nancy and her fellow pilgrims on El Camino de Santiago, other European inn-to-inn hikers, backpackers, and all of us who have taken a walkabout in California.
There is something primal about traveling long distances on foot, but modern life makes it easy to forget that this is part of our nature. Hiking multiple days in an extraordinarily beautiful setting like Point Reyes without setting foot in a car connects us to the land and to an essential part of ourselves. As each day passes, the connections deepen. Stay an extra day or two at the hostel and explore Estero de Limantour and Drakes Estero, estuaries that reach deep into the peninsula. The long, narrow finger of Limantour Spit separates the esteros from Drakes Bay. Small tidal coves and marshes branch from the main estuaries and cut into the rolling hills. Coyote brush and small pines grow on the grassy hillsides. Trails travel along the inlets, and although Estero de Limantour is only 2 miles from the road, few hikers and mountain bikers venture into this part of the park.
Scholars believe Sir Francis Drake sailed the Golden Hinde into these waters on June 17, 1579, on his three-year voyage around the world. After rounding the tip of South America, he sacked Valparaiso and other Spanish coastal outposts. In March 1579 he captured the Spanish galleon Calafuego and stole enough gold, silver, and jewels to retire the debt of England. Sailing north as far as the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the entrance to the Puget Sound, he failed to find the Northwest Passage and returned south along the coast. His ship was leaking badly, and he feared discovery by Spanish ship captains who would have dearly loved to seek revenge for his plunder of their vessels. It is believed that he sailed into the shallow waters of Drakes Estero and stayed for 36 days. His crew careened the ship, tipping the Hinde on her side, cleaning the hull, and repairing leaky seams. Coast Miwok watched this amazing sight from the hills, and then ventured down to greet the strangers.
They met a party in exotic dress--sailors in cloth leggings and officers wearing stockings and shoes with buckles. The Miwok women wore deerskin skirts. The men, according to the ship''s chaplain, Francis Fletcher, were naked, "as though proud of the suit nature gave them." During the course of their five-week visit, the English ventured inland and found a land teeming with elk and deer. Black bears and grizzlies roamed the coastal mountains. The Miwok enjoyed a rich life. Archaeologists have found the remains of 139 Miwok villages in Point Reyes. Acorns were the main staple of the Miwok diet, but they also dined on harbor seals and sea lions; harvested oysters, clams, and mussels from the marshes along Tomales Bay; and netted salmon and steelhead seasonally from nearby streams.
Drake named the land "Nova Albion," because the cliffs along what is now Drakes Beach reminded him of his homeland. The Miwok must have stared in amusement and disbelief when he erected a sturdy post with a brass plate claiming this land for his queen, Elizabeth I. Coast Miwok villagers gathered at night around a fire in the roundhouse while elders recited the tribe''s sacred stories. The visit by the strange men in the sailing ship mus.